OUR GREATEST RESOURCE: A topic of discussion at the most recent Vestry Meeting was the future of a Youth Group at Good Shepherd. It seems obvious that we have enough kids to have a youth group: we had 8 young people, ranging between thirteen and sixteen years of age, Confirmed by the Bishop on Sunday, June 20. Those eight do not exist in a vacuum; there are a good number both of slightly younger children and older teenagers. Beyond that, our Sunday School and Nursery are both booming… a Youth Group begun now would be built on a solid foundation and would be able to continue and grow for years to come.
The Vestry has made the formation of a Youth Group a priority for this Autumn, but the Youth Group is only one of several groups that we hope to support, form or reconstitute in 2010. The agenda of the August meeting of the Vestry will feature a discussion of a Youth Group, a Twenty-Thirties Group, the Men’s Group, the Women’s Group, and a Seniors Group. Some of these groups have existed in the past, some exist and thrive now. The plan for the August meeting is to see what can be done to jumpstart groups like the Youth Group and the Seniors Group that are already viable but not yet organized in any way and also to find ways to support current groups, like the Men’s Group, whose members successfully took on the all-night Smoked Pork Vigil, and the Women’s Group, whose members are already planning for the Annual Christmas Bazaar and who meet regularly for a book club. I don’t know where the discussion will lead us, and I don’t know what the future hold for groups that currently do not exist at Good Shepherd, but I am thrilled that the Vestry is taking this on. I would like to share a few ideas that I will throw into the discussion at next month’s meeting, based on conversations I have had with parishioners and members of the Vestry this past year. These are by no means all that we could do, but they might serve as food for thought. If you have more ideas, please let me or someone on the Vestry know before our mid August meeting.
I would love to start a Youth Group with a trip because I think that in terms of bonding there isn’t much like a long car ride (especially if the rector has banned IPods and cell phones in the car), a day and night spent in a new and unfamiliar place. I have lots of connections at churches from Boston to Washington, DC, and at least one church in Boston is willing to host us for an overnight; maybe, if all works out, we can have a Youth Group trip this fall or winter. We could travel to the location (Boston or maybe somewhere else), sightsee, worship together, sleep in sleeping bags on the floor of a church hall, and then come home the next day. An event like that can often serve as the foundation for other events. The group has been formed and solidified by the trip, after that, it’s much easier to plan smaller events, like a morning volunteering at a local soup kitchen or an afternoon hiking, because everyone already knows everyone else. When I grew up, the memorable Youth Group events were the overnight events. What I most remember was getting to know everyone else, and from there our friendships developed and grew.
My father is an Episcopal priest and rector in a parish in New York City. This past year he started a Seniors Group which meets monthly at the church. They meet for lunch, and each month there is a different program or speaker (the programs vary from a simple “introduce yourself to the group” to a formal speaker talking about an number of issues relevant to the group). The meetings regularly have fifty or more people in attendance. The only problem that they encountered was figuring out what age a person had to be to receive an invitation. I think that eventually they decided that anyone who was interested in being a part of the Senior Group, was welcome to come. I think something similar to that would work at Good Shepherd, and I know that there is interest for such an event. I hope that this fall Good Shepherd will host its first Senior Group event.
There are more than a handful of Twenties and Thirties at Good Shepherd – I am thirty-three – and I think we also need a group. I have the feeling that simply putting a date on the calendar and asking “Who is up for pool or bowling?” would probably work for this group.
The point of these groups is not to create cliques. The point is to facilitate fellowship and friendship at church. Our greatest resource is the people who worship at, are friends with, and are members of Good Shepherd. There are lots and lots of us, and we don’t all know each other. We have different tastes and different needs, but we all share the common desire and need for fellowship, community and friendship. Most of my best friends were made at church; I even first met Nicole, my wife, years ago at the Saint Michael’s Conference (a retreat for high school and college age youth). The friendships that were started by a church event being penciled into my calendar are too many too count. I spent this past year getting to know the people at Good Shepherd. After almost a year here, I can say that I love Good Shepherd because of the people I have gotten to know. It’s my hope that supporting some more groups will allow for everyone to be able to say the same thing!
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